My amazingly talented friend
Lana helped me fulfill one of my New Year's resolutions to learn to make pie crust. **Note: Sure, normal people have resolutions to loose weight or travel- mine typically involve things like perfecting cream and cheese sauces or learning to make pie crust**
Everything I read about making the perfect, flaky pie crust made it seem like a very, very complicated and delicate process- like if you touch it too much it will explode and your pie will be RUINED! I followed the internet tips and made a terrible pie crust (but yummy pie) and thought, "If only I knew someone to give me a hands-on lesson. Someone who is, say, a trained pastry chef..." Enter amazingly talented, pastry chef Lana!
The very, very best part of this pie crust is that it is NOT picky- you handle it a lot and it actually makes it MORE flaky. It is amazing (and French!). The second best part is that you mix it right on your counter or table- with your hands. I love "hands on" cooking. It is fun to get gooey and messy :)
So here is the recipe, and I took lots of pics with instructions on how to do it!
Le Cordon Bleu Pie/Tart Crust
makes 1 crust - double if you are doing a top and bottom crust
1 1/2 cup A/P flour
1 egg
1 T water
Pinch of salt
7 T butter, softened
*Lana says it is best if everything is the same temp, so if you think of it beforehand, you can set out your egg and butter to get to room temp. We microwaved our butter for 10 seconds and used a cold egg and it still came out fabulous!*
First, spoon flour into your measuring cup until it is almost full (as shown). You want to keep it fluffy. Then dump in on your very clean table/countertop.
Using your fingers, you want to make really big well in the flour- more like an atoll :) - like the pic shows. Add your egg, salt and water into the middle. Mix the egg and water with your fingers a bit to combine them.
Add your softened butter to the well. Squish it well with your fingers and mix it with the egg as much as possible.
Once the egg and butter is squished together, bring in the flour from the sides of the well and begin squishing them together to mix.
As you are mixing in the flour, smear the mixture on the table with the palm of your hand, as shown. This creates horizontal bits of butter that will make your crust flaky. The more you smear, the happier your crust will be!
Smear and "knead" until you get a very smooth ball- shown above. Put it in the fridge for at least 30 min before making your pie. I put mine in overnight and that worked, too.
To bake your crust, roll it out and place it in a pie pan. Refrigerate for 10 min. To pre-bake (or "blind bake" ) prick the crust all over with a fork and add weights (dry beans work) and bake for 15 min at 400 degrees. Then remove the weights and bake 10-15 min. more if you are making a quiche or crème pie. If you are making a fruit pie, skip the second baking and reduce the heat to 375 degrees . Then fill and bake as directed in your pie recipe.
When I made the apple pie above, I followed the recipe directions and skipped the blind bake part. It turned out well, too. It was a yummy pie-
here is the recipe!
Lana also says if you add
3 T sugar
1/2 t vanilla
And make as directed, this pie crust turns into delicious sugar cookies! I haven't tried it yet, but I did cut the extra crust into shapes and dusted it with cinnamon sugar for the kids and it held its shape really well! We're going to be trying it for Christmas cookies!
